Cozy Slippers - Postcards

Cozy Slippers is a three-piece out of Seattle, which in and of itself harkens to a bygone musical era. That their music is so utterly and admittedly a paean to the jangle-pop of previous decades only bolsters the notion of the sound of Cozy Slippers. Postcards, their second EP is a sweet, well-intentioned quintet of songs, but their reach is so short that it seems like a covers album more than anything else.

Two women (bassist/vocalist Sarah Engel and drummer/keyboardist/vocalist Barbara Barrilleaux) who met at a Ladies Rock Camp joined up with a man on guitar (Steven Skelton) and created a band apparently devoted to the kind of John Hughes-ian yearning, adolescent pop of the 80s. Even as their press release states, “Sonically, the band offers hints of new wave, yearning prom songs, and 80s and 90s indie.” That, in and of itself could suffice as a one-line review, especially the part about “prom songs.”

Specifically, the songs are….uhm….nice. And yet, nothing really moved me or stood out. The first song, “Not Hard to Say Goodbye” is all-trebly, interwoven female vocals, with a Bangles-esque melody, while “En Français” mentions “freshmen fears.” Clearly, the target audience wasn’t necessarily a middle-aged man a long, long way from freshman year.

This is an innocuous EP of five songs, but that’s not exactly what one might want to hear about their music. I love that they are so enamored of a period, but without something that makes it their own, it ends up sounding like pure homage, and there are enough bar bands working retro parties to take up that narrow need.